The video for “Window in the Skies,” one of the two new, Rick Rubin-produced songs on U2’s recent singles compilation, U218 Singles, is mesmerizing, repeat-watchable, and very Rock Snobbish. (Click on the screen-grab below to watch.) Compiled by director Gary Koepke, it uses dozens of archival clips of performances by famous musicians, editing them together so that–for a second or two, anyway–it looks like each musician is lip-synching to Bono’s vocal.

It’s a fun video, with appearances by, among others, Frank Zappa, the young Keith Richards, Bjork, Keith Moon, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Jack White, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Beck, Elvis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong. But equally interesting is who is not present. No Beatles? U2 probably wanted them in there but couldn’t get clearance from the ever-proprietary Neil Aspinall at Apple. And one can’t help but notice how very… exquisite the director and band have been in their choices. If only there could have been one or two nerdy, unfashionable figures to keep the video from being so tasteful–say, Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze, or Boz Scaggs or somebody.

Film Snobbery

Food Snobbery

Wine Snobbery

Bambaataa, Afrika. Zulu-centric OLD-SCHOOL Bronx DJ whose 1982 hit “Planet Rock” put Tommy Boy Records on the map and fused hip-hop with Caucasoid electronic music, built as it was around a figure from KRAFTWERK’s “Trans-Europe Express.” Despite his gang-member past and imposing cyborg mien (winged shades, hooded robes, vocoder-ized vocals), Bambaataa proved an affable ambassador of hip-hop culture to the white world, performing at such downtown new-wave clubs as the Mudd Club and the Peppermint Lounge in the early ’80s while presiding over his own “Zulu Nation” collective of DJs and b-boys uptown.